Thursday, January 14, 2010

Dulalala!! 02

Well, this was certainly a bold choice. Plucking a strand from the novel that would probably have been cut entirely in a more rushed adaption, and deftly spinning it into an episode long tone piece that could not be less like the bulk of the show in mood...

...while subtly explaining a few other key bits of exposition on the way. The episode appears to be focused on the new girl, Rio, neatly stitching together several bits of disconnected business from the novels into a complete story that still serves to introduce the original function, but works better as a cohesive unit.
It's easy to give credit to Takahiro Omori, who certainly does a fantastic job of making this unexpected detour come across as natural and fascinating, but Noboru Takagi is swiftly proving himself one of the best screenwriters in Japan. He really seems to understand Narita's style. I'm pretty sure the events in this episode don't happen in the novel -- and those that do, don't happen in quite this way -- but he's done such a great job matching the pieces together that it feels like they always were arranged this way. He did a bit of that over on Baccano!, which the flashback episode, but it's fascinating to seem him do that with material tonally opposed to what Narita is generally known for.

5 comments:

  1. Did you also feel like this episode was VERY Boogiepop? One girl's everday problems meet in a horrific cross-section of unknown and insane supernatural forces. I felt like I was getting the true Boogiepop adaption I always wanted! Let's get this team to do a Boogiepop and Others anime!!!

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  2. Yes, very much so. The Boogiepop influence on Narita's writing isn't quite as obvious as it is on Otsu Ichi or Nisio Isin, but it definitely crops up in little threads like this.
    I do worry such a downbeat second episode will be divisive, and lose viewers expecting high paced action, but I figure it's their loss.

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  3. Apparently, this thing is supposed to be 24 episodes long. Sick.

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  4. i wrote a post about this episode and it's connections to boogiepop over at fuzakenna.com that you may be interested in. I'd paste the link, but for some reason your comment fields don't allow pasting O_o

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  5. So the part with Rio is indeed an anime original, huh. I agree that the screenwriter had done a good job in matching its counterpart in the books. The director seemed to have done a great job as well xD Oh I'm happy that the geniuses behind Baccano are behind this. The anime will be able to live up to the awesomeness of the books! Yay!

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